WoBS - in Eberron {spoilers}

[Primitive Screwhead]

Greetings all!

I don't have this completely fleshed out and have been delaying posting.. then I realized that if I post what I have maybe some of the creative minds here at Enworld can help me build this right

First off, I like the Eberron setting and my initial thought on most modules now-a-days is "How can this fit into the setting?"
In this case, its simply amazing!

So, without further ado... and in no particular order:

Some information here is from the Secrets of Sarlona, and others from the adventures published so far.

The War of the Burning Sky occurs on the continent of Sarlona in what is occasionally called the kingdon of Rhiavaar towards the end of the times now known as the 'Sundering'..about 1,500 years before the Galifar established his Kingdom over on Khorvaire. The Quori have begun thier insidious invasion of Sarlona through the dreams and desires of the people. Great arcane wars rage across the land, destroying kingdom and country. In the process rifts in the planar fabric has begun to bleed into the world as manifest zones. The Fire Forest of Inntendor is a prime example of one such manifest zone.

Another example of this is the bleeding of Dal Quor into the realm of the waking. The 'Dreamscape' is a result of the pressure of the Quori on reality, disquised as another manifestation of the weak planar boundries. Frustratingly for the Dreaming Dark, they have no control over the powers that the Dreamscape provides.

The Quori pose as beneficial spirits, or Trillith, who possess those open to them and grant them additional powers. Some Quori are opposed to the Dreaming Dark and use the same power to assist those who oppose the invasion.

Psionics is still a little known discipline, altho the first Khalastar are coming into existance in Adar. The Path of Enlightenment is slowing growing as an accepted religion and many seek for the peace that is echoing in thier dreams.

Some of the 'normal' Eberron setting is present, while much is not. Artificers have yet to master the skill of infusions, but spell casters are common. Warforged are still hidden away on Xendrik, altho the Shifters of the Tundra often are seen in trading furs and pelts of strange beasts. Changlings and Eneko are rare sights, but are commonly known of..altho treated as dangerous and untrustworthy.

The Elves of Sarlona are descendants of Xendrik whose racial attitudes are drawn from thier recent memories of thier own slavery, only a generation behind them. But they are outcasts from the burgeoning Aerenal society. The Wayfarer's are a constant reminder to them that the eyes of thier distant fathers are still on them.

Dragon-Marks and Dragon-Shards have not yet come to light. The shards do exist, primarily Kyber shards dug up in Dwarven mines.. but thier usefullness has not been discovered.

The tale of the Dragon, Eagle and Worm is an echo of Eberron's creation tale.

I plan on fleshing out the Myths and tying them to the Eberron pantheon, as well as delving more into the Quori/Trillith link.

And at some point I am considering on having the group encounter a nice little pirate lass named Lhazaar

Since I don't have the entire campaign, I am not sure whether the Dreaming Darks goal is to have Ragesia become the core of the new peaceful nation of Riedra... or if the heroes of this tale will accidently be pawns in bringing about the largest invasion of Eberron since the Fiendish war.... of course... perhaps either final result will fit nicely into thier plans

Thats all for now, I am sure I will be back later...and hopefully more coherent.

BTW: Thanks to Ranger Wickett and Morrus for this excellent campaign world!

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm a little fuzzy on Sarlonna, having not yet seen that book, but given what I know about the trillith's eventual desire, unless you want to change that a bit, you might want the entity in charge of the 'trillith' to have a slightly different agenda from the rest of the Dreaming Dark. The trillith, led by a dream known as Freedom, seek to unbind the material world, so they can exist as pure spirits, without bodies.

I will say, when I initially came up with the idea for WotBS, it was based in ancient history of my own home campaign, so the prehistory of Sarlonna should work quite well. I would be very interested to see how all this works out.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Thanks for the heads up...

since I placed this mid-'Sundering' the Trillith's goals can be represented by an 'option' that the Dreaming Dark tries out, and eventually drops as not viable. By bringing the planes into phase they would be able to physically manifest and rule Eberron without the need for physical bodies.

In the normal course of the world, this option is defeated {presumably by the heroes} and they fall back on the longer term option that is represented by the colonization of Riedra through the Inspired.

In the Secret's of Sarlona book there is an event towards the end of the Sundering where the arcane Wars almost free a powerful fiend that is imprisoned under Syrkarn {the nation to the east of Khiavaar}... which results in the creation/arrival of the Yuanti...driving the Quori out of that region. This event could have convinced the Trillith that thier plan of uniting the planes would result in the eventual destruction of both and the Turning {which the Quori are attempting to forestall}

Reading some of HellCows {K. Baker} posts on the topic of the Dreaming Dark, this fits quite nicely into the vision of an epic, patient force that is working multiple plots towards a common and unified goal.

Regarding the book... if you like the Eberron and its mix of grey as well as multiple factions vying for power, grab a copy. It shows Riedra to be a carefully constructed house of cards, that gets more stable the longer it stays in play. However the opportunity to work mischief is easy to come by for those who look for that sort of thing. It is a different feel for a society and the hidden agenda of the Quori can make for a very scary setting...scary like Children of the Corn scary. Its hard to slay the bad guys when most of them hide behind brainwashed innocents :\

 

[gribble]

Wow... I was just about to post something similiar - luckily I scanned the existing posts first!

I'm reading secrets of Sarlona and WotBS (as the various bits get released) and can't help but think that they tie together very well, with a little bit of effort to customise WotBS a bit.

I was originally thinking of setting it in modern day Sarlona, but I think this works perfectly as a sort of 1000 year old pre-history!

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

WoBS - Pantheons

I am only picknig at this for the moment, but Module 3 has a portion where the faiths are gathered.. so

The campaign is set in a time before widespread acceptance of the Soverign Host as a whole, instead each priest follows one specific diety. Assuming the PCs are succesfull in both handling the Temple Trouble in Seaguen and that the city survives the war, their efforts will start the widespread following of the Sovereign Host.

The factions in Seaquin are:

InquisitivesPhilosophy: Followers of Aureon, the diety of Knowledge, generally Ragesian and human.
Weapon: Quarterstaff
Hospitalers: Followers Bodrei, the diety of Community, generally Ragesian and human.
Weapon: Spear
Savages: Followers of Balinor, the diety of Beasts and the Hunt, generally Ragesian and Half-Orc or shifter
Weapon: Battle axe
Druids: Followers of Arawai, diety of plants and weather, generally Ragesian and Orcish
Weapon: sickle
Dassani: Followers of Ollahdra, diety of feast and fellowship, generally Dwarven
Weapon: Morningstar
Ostaliner Mercs: Followers of Dol Dorn, diety of Strength and War, mostly human
Weapon: Longsword
Seaquin: Followers of Kol Korrah, diety of Commerce and Travel, all races
Weapon: Heavy Mace
Sindaire: Followers of Onatar, diety of Artifice, mostly Elvish
Weapon: Warhammer

Order of the Echoed Soul: Followers of either the Path of light, possibly the first Khalastar!


The creation myth is easily mapped to events before the three progenitor dragons fought to death.. THe Eagle is Sibyrus, The Dragon is Kyber, and the Worm is Eberron.

Let me know if any of these are really off... My group has at least one more session before they get even close to needing to have this hammered out

 

[RangerWickett]

As an editor, as creator of the setting, as a fan of Eberron, and as a person with moderator access for this forum, I was strongly tempted to edit your post and fix the spelling for the various places and groups.


I'm basing a lot of my answers off http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_Host

Actually, I would go with Siberys as Eagle, Eberron as the Dragon, and Khyber as the Worm. And as presented, inquisitors wouldn't use quarterstaffs (they like their sub-optimal but nifty 'hand-claws'), but it's no big if you have them do that. Actually, the inquisitors are bad guys, so perhaps they could follow one of the dark six, or go with the default assumption that they're heretics who worship the ideals of their leader Leska.

I never was quite clear on the difference between Kalashtar and Inspired, but the monks of the order of echoed souls aren't trying to unleash dream monsters from beyond. I'd put them more in the Kalashtar camp.

Aureon would be a good fit for the students of Lyceum, though for the town of Seaquen itself, sure, Kol Korran can work.

Balinor works for whichever place you're using to replace Dassen, since the locals love their earth.

Sindaire is not an elvish place at all in the campaign saga, but I guess there's no reason that couldn't change.

Dol Arrah is an easy fit for the Shahalesti, or whoever you're replacing them with. They've got a big sun fetish. Though they also tend to use longswords, so perhaps they follow Dol Dorn too.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Go ahead ...Thats what happens when I post the day after scribbling notes and am at work...without the notes

One major typo was teh 'Inquisitors'.. that was supposed to be 'Philosophers'...the first religeous contingent to deal with in Seaquen.

I am transplanting the campaign saga as is into the prehistory of Sarlona..pre-inspired and Reidra.

One of the pieces about the Eberron setting I like is that entire nations or races are not all the same cookie cutter, so many of the Acadamy could follow Aureon as you suggest.. and the Sahelestian weild whatever works best in war. I was mainly focusing on converting the encounter to fit the setting

 

[amethal]

I'm going to be running WotBS in Sarlonna as well, but I'm far too lazy to do most of the conversion work described above Consider those deity conversions stolen!

After all, a lot can change in a 1500 - 2000 years.

I'm far from an Eberron expert, but is there any reason why the Trilliths have to be the Quori? I see them as separate entities from the Realm of Dreams with their own agenda.

It is, however,the actions of the Trilliths which will eventually pave the way for the Quori invasion.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

The trillith abilities tie well with the Quori. I am looking at having them be a third faction of Quori that end up being eliminated or overwhelmed by the Dreaming Dark when its decided that this attempt to save the race from extintion has failed...

Given the limited description we have of them so far, they may be better done not as pure-blood quori but a variant that takes on aspects drawn from mortal dreams in order to take form... I am condisering giving them a dark sidhe flavor.

Glad that my posting here is being useful

 

[joela]

Anywhere else?

First off, I like the Eberron setting and my initial thought on most modules now-a-days is "How can this fit into the setting?"
In this case, its simply amazing!

Any thoughts on how to incorporate it into Khorvaire?